Celtic Elves? Jackson’s design and the Elves of the films

[NogrodtheGreat]

I just finished reading a fascinating essay by Dimitri Fimi in the collection “Picturing Tolkien”, edited by Janice Bogstad. In the essay Fimi analyses several ways in which external non-Tolkien folklore influenced the visual design of Jackson’s films. In one interesting example, she shows how Jackson’s Elves are heavily dependent on “Celtic” images – curvilinear forms, “natural”, “graceful” and “flowing” art design and the creation of “celtic” moods evoking melancholy, enchantment and “otherworldliness”. As Fimi argues, Tolkien’s Elves might occasionally evoke these kinds of feelings, especially in their sense of retreat and disengagement from Middle-earth, but more generally their ‘real world’ analogues are to be found in Old Norse alfar and Irish Sidh.

Fimi explains that these “Celtic” sensibilities arise out of the anti-English and nationalistic Celtic revival movements from the early 20th Century – especially in Ireland – and that this movement influenced neo-celtic artwork, characterised by interlace work and “natural” forms and contrasted to “Anglo-Saxon” motifs supposedly more rigid and artificial (never mind that historically Anglo-Saxon art was a fusion of La Tene “Celtic” pre-Roman art and continental ‘Germanic’ art). Certainly, as an archaeologist I am perhaps more aware than most that supposedly “Celtic” art from pre-Roman times can only be very dubiously categorised as such. All we really know is that the people who produced it lived in modern France and Germany and may have spoken languages with a common ancestry. This does not demonstrate that these people thought of themselves as Celts nor that their artwork inspired identical aesthetic responses in them as it does for modern people. As Fimi argues, that these design choices were made with regards to the Elves because they evoke for modern people notions of natural authenticity, completeness and purity, all qualities the Elves are supposedly associated with.

Rivendell

Take this image of a Rivendell interior. Gandalf’s chair, Frodo’s bed, even his bedspread, are all elaborately decorated with “flowing” and “interlacing” tree patterns evoking natural imagery. The effect is enhanced by the openness of the set, which implies an architectural oneness with nature. Even the slightly melancholic figures are wrapped in branches, suggesting the absorption of the anthropomorphic into the natural. There don’t appear to be any straight lines anywhere. All this is very “Celtic”, in the New Age sense – Jackson’s Elves are “one with nature”, they are “close to the earth” as the saying goes.

These kinds of architectural motifs are repeated ad nauseum in Lorien (where this kind of design is perhaps more appropriate, anyway). In the Hobbit films, an even more blatant “elves as natural” theme is produced in Thranduil’s Halls, though using a smaller repertoire of motifs. For Thranduil’s Halls, there appear to be even fewer anthropomorphic forms, and the design is less abstracted in places to evoke and even imitate the interlacing branches of trees and even more abstracted in others, evoking even more directly La Tene pattern designs found archaeologically.

Thranduil's Hall

We can see in this image that Thranduil’s throne room is decorated with pillars carved to with branching designs. The bridge leading up to it is similarly carved – clearly these Elves are deeply connected to a forest environment and their art design reflects this. Indeed such designs bring to mind Tolkien’s description of Menegroth in the Silmarillion, with its pillars carved to look like beeches and the natural imagery that is evoked for the great hall of Thranduil. Even there, however, the suggestion is not that all Elves subscribe to this aesthetic vision, merely that it was something clearly relevant for Thranduil’s halls and the woodland culture of the Sindar. I can’t really imagine Gondolin as a glorified Rivendell, for example, covered in kitschy Celtic interlace work.

This rambling discussion leads to a question: what do you think of the designer’s choices for Elves in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies? Were they justified in using “Celtic” imagery as an appropriate artistic influence for Elvish culture? Are they Elves really that “one with nature” anyway.

It seems to me that the filmmakers misunderstood the Elves’ relationship with the natural world, which is (contrary to the Rivendell design) not one of acquiescence and accommodation, but is far more “industrial”. Lothlorien is the best example. At a superficial level, it is a kind of otherworldly “Celtic” paradise, where the Elves live without distrupting the natural processes that go on in the forest. But in fact – and this is crucial – Lothlorien is a completely ‘artificial’ environment. It’s ‘purity’ is sustained by some kind of Magic, emanating from Galadriel and her Ring. The relationship is at its core one of control and mastery. I’m not sure how such a relationship might be evoked through architecture, but at the very least I would argue that the filmmakers’ conception of the Elves as ‘natural’ is flawed and reflected a superficial reading. Furthermore, that their choice of Celtic imagery is actually misleading in this respect. What say you?

[Inziladun]

I don't really have enough knowledge about such matters to delve too deeply, but I wonder if a Celtic view of the Elves might have led to the filmmakers' preference for the music they used, specifically that of Enya.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by NogrodtheGreat

. At a superficial level, it is a kind of otherworldly “Celtic” paradise, where the Elves live without distrupting the natural processes that go on in the forest. But in fact – and this is crucial – Lothlorien is a completely ‘artificial’ environment. It’s ‘purity’ is sustained by some kind of Magic, emanating from Galadriel and her Ring. The relationship is at its core one of control and mastery. I’m not sure how such a relationship might be evoked through architecture, but at the very least I would argue that the filmmakers’ conception of the Elves as ‘natural’ is flawed and reflected a superficial reading. Furthermore, that their choice of Celtic imagery is actually misleading in this respect. What say you?

"On the land of Lorien there was no stain" strikes me as the kind of mastery and control that protects from decay, not that creates a"completely artificial environment". And rather than describing the elves as not disrupting the natural processes of the forest, I think of them as driving out darkness and decay to allow health and vigor. Again, that doesn't'sound artificial to me, as in anti-nature, but rather pro-nature.

[NogrodtheGreat]

Yes you can call in "pro nature" if you like but it's still artificial. Natural processes that would otherwise have taken place a disrupted by the Elves for their own philosophical purposes.

[jallanite]

The use of art nouveau ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau ) as an indication of elvish-style naturalism is a commonplace, not only connected to Tolkien’s art. Art nouveau owes much to Celtic designs, though NogrodtheGreat does not mention it by name.

See Anne Podles’ article on “Tolkien & the New Art” at http://www.touchstonemag.com/archive...id=15-01-041-f . I think she is pushing her thesis over strongly.

That Tolkien much appreciated art nouveau appears from his own art, some of which was published in the original Hobbit. The leaf clusters on the trees in Tolkien’s illustration “Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raftelves” have been noted for their art nouveau quality and the picture as a whole for its art nouveau quality. See http://aidanmoher.com/blog/wp-conten...d_tolkien.jpeg .

See also this poster http://www.posterparty.com/images/lo...ter-WG2931.jpg , not by Tolkien.

NogrodtheGreat seems to be pushing what he gets from Celtic art or what Dimitri Fimi gets from it, or some of both, onto the film-makers, possibly wrongly. I am really uncertain what he would expect Rivendell or Lothlórien art and architecture to be like if not as in the films, which most satisfies most people, so far as I can see.

Simply calling the use of art nouveau as misleading leads nowhere.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by NogrodtheGreat

Yes you can call in "pro nature" if you like but it's still artificial. Natural processes that would otherwise have taken place a disrupted by the Elves for their own philosophical purposes.

Would you rejoice when your tomato plants got powdery mildew because it's "natural"? I don't see your logic. Diseased plants are a sorrow, and shielding the plants from the disease is hardly artificial. It's husbandry.

Nor is cleansing Mirkwood an artificiality.

I could understand your focus if you were arguing about the builders of Gondolin or other Noldorin cities, but the Lorien elves specifically dwelt in the trees in flets, or talans. It wouldn't surprise me if their art reflected the trees they lived in; their brooches were leaf-shaped, and the belt they gave Boromir.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Lorien was dominated by the Mallorn tree, which today's environmentalists would abhor as an "introduced alien species" which has completely altered the native ecosystem.......

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If Tolkien's Elves were actually Celtic elves, they'd be right bastards. Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies gets closer, as does Jonathan Strange.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by NogrodtheGreat

It seems to me that the filmmakers misunderstood the Elves’ relationship with the natural world, which is (contrary to the Rivendell design) not one of acquiescence and accommodation, but is far more “industrial”. Lothlorien is the best example. At a superficial level, it is a kind of otherworldly “Celtic” paradise, where the Elves live without distrupting the natural processes that go on in the forest. But in fact – and this is crucial – Lothlorien is a completely ‘artificial’ environment. It’s ‘purity’ is sustained by some kind of Magic, emanating from Galadriel and her Ring. The relationship is at its core one of control and mastery. I’m not sure how such a relationship might be evoked through architecture, but at the very least I would argue that the filmmakers’ conception of the Elves as ‘natural’ is flawed and reflected a superficial reading. Furthermore, that their choice of Celtic imagery is actually misleading in this respect. What say you?

I think I agree with you to a certain extent, because I do feel that, as a result of the Three in particular, the Elves' relationship with nature did feature an element of mastery. As Professor Tolkien observes in Letter 181, "they desired some 'power' over things as they are (which is quite distinct from art), to make their particular will to preservation effective: to arrest change, and keep things always fresh and fair."

There are certainly things that bother me about the designs of the Elves in the films - their use of plate armour, much like the Men of Minas Tirith, for instance - and personally I think their artefacts, in Rivendell at least, might possibly be afforded more metal and jewellery, as would befit the Noldor. Similarly I generally feel that 'Elvishness' is presented in the films as dainty and delicate in a way that is rather cliché. But if their architecture was given, say, a more 'Norse' look, would it be confused with Rohan?

Perhaps the most egregious overstatement of this 'nature-loving' aspect of Elves is their apparent vegetarianism in "An Unexpected Journey."

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

Perhaps the most egregious overstatement of this 'nature-loving' aspect of Elves is their apparent vegetarianism in "An Unexpected Journey."

Having not seen AUJ, I wasn't aware of that. It's notable though that in the books, the Mirkwood Elves are definitely not averse to eating meat.

When they are first observed in the Forest by Thorin and Co., it is noted that they were eating and drinking, and that:

The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food.

TH Flies and Spiders

And later, it it said that the Elves:

....lived and hunted in the open woods...

[mhagain]

Tolkien's Elves are definitely Celtic in inspiration; see http://www.libraryireland.com/Ancien...Sidhe-Race.php

they must die without hope of regaining heaven, while mortals are certain of immortality. Therefore this one sorrow darkens their life, a mournful envy of humanity; because, while man is created immortal, the beautiful fairy race is doomed to annihilation.

And: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_...endary_history

...they arrived in ships on the coast of the Conmaicne Mara's territory. They immediately burnt the ships...

Plus, in the Silmarillion at least, they are right bastards.